HERACLES 521
killed Electryon in a fit of anger and for this reason left Argos with Alcmena
and came to Thebes. There he lived with Alcmena, but he did not consummate
their marriage until he had returned victorious over the Teleboans. Meanwhile
Zeus had lain with Alcmena that same night; yet Amphitryon was able to lie
"all night long with his chaste wife, delighting in the gifts of golden Aphrodite."
Another variant is the plot of the "tragicomedy" (as the playwright himself
called it) by Plautus, Amphitruo. In this version, Jupiter (Zeus) and Mercury
(Hermes) disguise themselves as Amphitryon and Amphitryon's servant Sosia,
respectively. Amphitryon returns just after Jupiter has left Alcmena, who is thor-
oughly confused. She gives birth to twins, one of whom is stronger than the
other, and immediately strangles two serpents sent by Juno (Hera) to kill him.
Just as Alcmena's servant Bromia is describing the scene, Jupiter himself appears
and reveals the truth to Amphitryon. This is the only one of the surviving plays
of Plautus whose plot is taken from mythology.
THE BIRTH OF HERACLES AND HIS EARLY EXPLOITSThe birth of Heracles introduces a constant feature of his story, the hostility of
Hera. Zeus had boasted on Olympus on the day when Heracles was to be born
(Homer, Iliad 19. 102-105):
¥
Today Eileithyia, helper in childbirth, will bring to the light a man who shall
rule over all that dwell around him; he shall be of the race that is of my blood.Hera deceived Zeus by hastening the birth of the child of Sthenelus (king of
Mycenae), whose wife was seven months pregnant, and sending Eileithyia to
delay the birth of Alcmena's sons.^4 Sthenelus was the grandson of Zeus, and so
his son rather than Alcmena's fulfilled the terms of Zeus' boast. He was Eurys-
theus, for whom Heracles performed the Labors.
Pindar tells the story (mentioned earlier in connection with the Amphitruo
of Plautus) that Hera also sent a pair of snakes to kill the infant Heracles, whose
birth she had not been able to prevent. The passage ends with the prophet Tire-
sias foretelling the hero's part in the battle of the gods against the Giants and
his eventual deification (Nemean Odes 1. 33-72):
f
Willingly do I take hold of Heracles upon the high peaks of Virtue as I retell an
ancient tale. When the son of Zeus had escaped from the birth pangs with his
twin and had come into the bright light, he was wrapped in the yellow swad-
dling bands, and Hera of the golden throne saw him. Straightway in hasty anger,
the queen of the gods sent snakes, which passed through the open doors into
the farthest part of the wide room, eager to coil their quick jaws around the chil-
dren. But Heracles lifted up his head and for the first time made trial of battle;
with his two hands, from which there was no escape, he seized by their necks
the two serpents, and his grip squeezed the life out of the huge monsters, stran-
gling them.